


Their Grey Planet

by pendaly



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sgrub Session, Betrayal, Blood, Body Horror, Culling, Dismemberment, Eye Trauma, Gore, Helmsman Sollux Captor, Hemophobia, Indentured Servitude, Multi, Pale Prostitution, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-03-30 01:05:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3917473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pendaly/pseuds/pendaly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Had Sgrub never existed our twelve post-scratch trolls might never have met, and if they had it would have been under different circumstances. Each of them would have undergone numerous difficulties with life on Alternia. This series of interconnected snippets of their lives sans Sgrub illustrates a possible reality for each of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A One Time Thing

**Author's Note:**

> I realize some of this may conflict with Canon, but I've tried to make it fit as well as I can, feel free to point out Errors in either conventions or consistency with Canon.

CG: OKAY LOOK. I'M JUST SAYING THAT YOU NEED TO ACTUALLY LET OFF SOME DAMNED STEAM FROM TIME TO TIME. DO YOU EVEN LISTEN TO ME? YOU CONSTANTLY BUG THE FUCK OUT OF ME AND YET YOU REFUSE TO TAKE MY ADVICE ANY TIME I OFFER IT.

CA: yeah wwell at least i aint so damn cagey as you are

CA: you havvent evven told me your codforsaken name

CA: shall i simply refer to you as "the hemoanonymous plebian wwith a stick up their ass?"

CG: EXCUSE YOU, IF EITHER OF US HAVE A STICK UP THEIR ASS IT'S YOU. I MEAN, YOU SIT HERE AND COMPLAIN ABOUT YOUR MOIRAIL LIKE... EVERY HOUR OF EVERY NIGHT AND FUCKING DAY WHEN I SHOULD BE TRYING TO AVOID GETTING SCORCHED.

CG: AND IT DOESN'T EVEN SOUND LIKE YOU DO ANYTHING WITH HER! LIKE HOLY SHIT, IF THAT ISN'T ONE DYSFUNCTIONAL FUCKING PALE RELATIONSHIP I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS. PALE RELATIONSHIPS REQUIRE PHYSICAL CONTACT, REASSURANCE, MUTUAL TRUST, AND A DISTINCT SENSE OF OPENESS.

CG: IN SHORT: YOU HAVE THE MOST DISGUSTING ASS-PUSTULE OF A MOIRAILLEGIANCE I'VE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE OF HEARING ABOUT WHICH IS SIMPLY PROVED BY THE FACT THAT YOU DRAG YOUR SORRY BULGE-LICKING ASS OVER HERE TO RANT TO ME ABOUT IT. IF YOU CAN'T DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR MOIRAIL THEN YOU'RE NOT IN A GOOD RELATIONSHIP.

CA: oh come on cg howw do you evven knoww this shit

CA: like youvve evver been in any sort a relationship wwhatsoevver

CA: wwhen wwas the last time you evver evven had a quadrant in the swweep or so wwevve knowwn each other?

CG: WELL FOR ONE, I AT LEAST _REASEARCH_ THIS SHIT, AS OPPOSED TO YOU WHO JUST WINGS IT, AND FOR ANOTHER THING, I HAVE IN FACT BEEN IN A RELATIONSHIP ONCE.

CG:…

CG:… THAT LASTED APPROXIMATELY THREE DAYS.

CA: HAHAHAH oh my fuckin-

CA: wwhat a fuckin load a poppycock

CG: WELL ALL THE SAME, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO ASKS FOR ADVICE HERE.

CA: wwell if youre so fuckin BRILLIANT wwith relationships wwhy dont you got any sorta quadrantmate, hmmn?

CG: SHUT YOUR FUCKING WINDHOLE, ERIDAN. I DON'T HAVE A RELATIONSHIP FOR MY OWN PERSONAL REASONS THAT HAPPEN TO BE NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS SO FUCK OFF ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE PIT IN THE SEA IN WHICH THE GREAT GL'BGOLYB DEVOURS THE LUSII OF UNFORTUNATE WRIGGLERS.

CA: hey

CA: i got an idea

CA: if youre so fuckin genius at bein pale

CA: wwhy dont you showw me

CG: WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN? AS OF RIGHT NOW THAT SOUNDS LIKE A BULLSHIT PROPOSITION.

CA: i mean

CA: just for the purposes of noww howw about you demonstrate wwhat a great fuckin moirail youd be

CA: just a one-time thin

CA: can you at least put vviewwport-call on?

CG: I WAS RIGHT. THIS IS AN AWFUL FUCKING PROPOSITION. I'M SO GOING TO SHOOT YOU IN YOUR FUCKING FACE.

CA: aww come on here cg

CA: wwork wwith me here

CA: just one time

CA: plus i wwanna see wwhat your face looks like

CG: WHY ARE YOU SO FUCKING ADAMANT ABOUT THIS? IT'S NOT LIKE I'M ANYTHING SPECIAL, I'M JUST A DUDE IN HIS HIVE WHO HAPPENS TO KNOW A LOT ABOUT ROMANCE.

CA: then you should havve no problem wwith this encounter

CG: …

CG: I PLATONICALLY HATE YOU.

\--carcinoGeneticist  [CG]  initiated a VIEWPORT CALL with caligulasAquarium [CA] at 15:37--

Karkat grumbled to himself. He'd purposefully altered his view-receptacle to not pick up color and only display in black and white so he thankfully did not have to worry about blushing, or chewing his lip until it bled or anything else of that sort. He glanced up at the screen of his husktop as Eridan's face came into view and he blinked at him. Karkat crossed his arms over his chest, glaring through the receptacle as he hid his face in the neck of his sweater.

"Okay I did your dumbass fucking viewport call, are you done torturing me now?"

"Oh my god! You're so fuckin' adorable holy shit look at yer face!"

Karkat regrettably turned at least twelve different shades of red at the comment, pulling his sweater up even higher over his face, so very thankful that his receptacle didn't show color.

"I am not adorable. Fuck you with a fucking chainsaw, I'll shove my frond-nub so far up your ass your descendants will have bad breath."

Eridan snickered and ran a hand through his douchey fucking hair and leaned forwards on his desk as he stared at his respective screen, "W-whatev-ver you say, CG."

"So what exactly was even the point of all this? I mean seriously. You _have_ a moirail. Mind you your relationship totally sucks, but all the same."

"I w-was just thinkin' I'd giv-ve you a chance ta prov-ve yourself or some such nonsense."

He rolled his eyes and pulled his knees up onto his chair with a frown, "Wow. You are a trashy fucking cheating little fuck, aren't you?"

"You said my relationship w-wasn't w-workin' out anyw-ways."

"Know what? Fine. Fucking fine. I'll play your little game, alright? This is like a bad pale fucking porno oh my god."

Eridan snickered a little as he leaned back in his... it looked like he was sitting on his couch or something? Karkat raised an eyebrow at the long purple Cape he donned around his shoulders as he sat back in his desk chair.

"W-wow-w, w-way ta be subtle, CG. W-with subtlety like that you could be some sorta spy or somethin'."

Karkat rolled his eyes as he ran a hand through his hair and sighed, "Whatever. Shall we get this dumbass fucking show on the road then?”

Eridan shrugged and pulled his cape up around over his knees like a blanket, “Sure thin’… you sure you ain’t gonna tell me your name?”

Karkat raised an eyebrow, “Definitely not. Anywho,” He settled back into his chair and sighed, “What else’s been bugging you lately? We already talked about your moirail and shit.”

Eridan sighed and pushed his head back between his couch cushions so his horns would poke up out between them, “I don’t fuckin’ know-w. Just tired a’ this w-whole orphaner gig as per the usual… tired in general really. No one fuckin’ talks to me like… fuckin ev-ver.” He pulled his head back out from between the cushions and sat forwards a little bit, “I don’t know-w… W-what about you? W-we hardly ev-ver actually talk about any a’ the shit goin’ on w-with you.”

Karkat raised an eyebrow at him, “That’s because I don’t _want_ to discuss my issues with you. I doubt you’d be much help.”

“W-wow-w, fuckin’ rude, CG.”

“No I’m being practical here. Let’s just talk about you again, I don’t think you’d want to hear about any of my issues.”

“Aw-w Come on!”

“No. This is a set boundary here, you got that? We are not talking about my shit right now. Sorry but it’s a safety issue.”

Eridan’s eyebrows shot up in return, “Safety? Come on, it can’t possibly be that bad.”

“Shut the fuck up right now before I hang the fuck up on you. Just-” He gritted his teeth before taking a deep breath and leaning back on the seat again, “Just drop it, okay?”

Eridan frowned deeply before sighing dejectedly with a pout, “Alright, fine then.”

“Back to you.”

“Ah yes… me... I mean… I don’t know. She’s not payin’ much attention to me an’ I ain’t sure if it’s somethin’ I did or w-what? I mean… I know-w she’s busy an’ all a’ that responsible stuff, but I-”

“Have you even tried talking to her?”

There was a long pause before Eridan sighed, “W-well no, not really.”

“See this is your problem. You don’t try to get her attention and help when you need it and then you blame her for it. Do you think she’s some fucking psychic who knows all the time when you want her to pay attention to you?”

Eridan turned a light purple color and rolled his eyes, “W-well ya see here… I uh… May be lookin’ to be somethin’… a little more than pale w-with her if you know-w what I mean.”

Karkat groaned and slid down off his chair in agitation, slipping under his desk and groaning before flopping back on the floor, speaking from there instead of coming back up to talk directly to the viewport receptacle, “You are such a fucking idiot, do you know that? First of all. Red shit is not more than pale. It is not more fucking important, it’s not more. It just serves a different purpose. Second of all, if you don’t want her fucking pale then why did you agree to be her moirail!? You-” He climbed back up into his chair and ran a hand through his hair, “You are literally the stupidest person I have ever met. Did you even think about the fact that by putting yourself in a pale quadrant with her you are going to create a shitty relationship and then also solidify yourself in that quadrant so she’ll not really think about you in any other?”

Eridan just blinked at Karkat’s little outburst, “W-well… I gotta start somew-where don’t I?”

“You’re a fucking idiot. An adorable idiot. But a fucking idiot all the same.”

Several hours passed between them, discussing the technicalities of Eridan’s life and eventually just drifting off into film recommendations and favorite colors and stupid shit that neither of them would remember after any significant amount of time.

“So uh, CG… It’s lookin’ like I gotta go now-w. The sun’s startin’ ta come up an’ I ain’t real keen on gettin’ fried this mornin’.”

Karkat nodded, rubbing his eyes a little bit as he glanced over at his covered window, “Yeah, sun’s almost up here as well…”

Eridan nodded, “Alright… maybe w-we could… ya know-w… if ya w-want w-we could um-”

“Look, Eridan. You’re so easily pitiable, and nice, and have good taste in movies… But this isn’t going to work. You have a moirail. And even if you didn’t I’m afraid it wouldn’t work out here because of reasons I’m not planning on spewing in your general direction anytime soon. So this… whatever this was. This… pale fling… That’s all it is, okay? This was… just a one-time thing.”

Eridan’s smile vanished a bit and he nodded a little, “I-… alright. I get it… can I at least know-w your name?”

Karkat chewed his lower lip and ran a hand through his hair before sighing and nodding a little bit, “Sure. I’m Karkat. I… guess this was pretty nice, huh?”

Eridan nodded back at him, “Yeah. This w-was pretty nice… w-wasn’t it?”

And for a moment they were both quiet before Eridan cleared his throat, “I’m gonna go ahead an’ hop into my ‘coon now-w… I’ll… uh. I’ll talk to you sometime tomorrow-w maybe.”

Karkat nodded, “Yeah. Sounds good. Good day, Eridan.”

Eridan smiled at him just a little bit, “G’day, Kar.”

And the viewport went black. Karkat sighed and spun in his desk chair for a moment, an awful, sickening feeling building up in his gut, far too sweet and caring for his tastes. He turned back to look at the viewport where Eridan’s face had been not a minute ago and sighed. Eridan had a moirail. Sure Karkat would be a better fit for him… but he already had one. And Eridan was a high blood. He was practically the _highest_ blood. There was no way it would work between them if he was as hemist as he seemed to be. And so Karkat turned his husktop off and headed off to crawl into his recuperacoon and drifted off to sleep ever so slowly, heart aflutter with thoughts of cuddles in piles and curling up to nap in the same coon with someone, the smell of salt water, and the feeling of cool hands running through his hair.


	2. Purrchance Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter's so short. A lot of these are going to be relatively short because I feel like only snippets of these events are required to effectively tell the story, but whatever, have fun reading!

He was so funny. It made her snicker the way he lumbered through the woods with such little grace he looked like some sort of ox plowing his way through the underbrush. She giggled a little bit and peeked out from behind the tree, the enormous troll stopping at the sound and glancing around, a visible sheen of sweat covering his forehead.

"Who's there?"

She only giggled quietly in response, smiling as she skirted her way through the underbrush, peeking up over the shrubbery to watch him as he stood quietly, trying to look commanding despite his shaking hands and the beads of sweat dripping down his face and neck.

"I order you to show yourself!"

She poked her head out from behind the tree with a grin and climbed out from behind the vegetation to crouch on the side of the path through the forest, staring up at him, amusement written clearly over her face and he stared down at her, raising the lenses of his cracked shades from his eyes and blinking down at her.

"What is your business here, lowblood?"

She raised her eyebrows at him and stood up straight, "I live here, dumb-butt. What are _you_ doing here?"

His cheeks flushed a light shade of blue for a moment before he shook his head, as if trying to dismiss the idea that such a thing had ever happened. He straightened his shirt out a bit and cleared his throat, "I am... well, not that I owe someone like _you_ anything, but I have come here in an attempt to scout out this area for... uh... well-"

"You're lost, aren't you?"

He sighed and nodded a bit as he slid his shades back down over his eyes, "I hate to admit it, but yes. I do appear to have gotten myself rather lost," He cleared his throat and straightened himself up, brushing his hands over his stomach, "Lowblood, I order you to give me directions out of this forest."

She snickered a little bit and crossed her arms at him, "I have a name you know?"

"Yes, but it is... uh... inconsequential to my well-being."

"What if I refused to give you directions, since you're being such a rude butt-face?"

The guy straightened up a little further and crossed his arms, turning his attention elsewhere, "I'm sure I'd find some way to get out on my own. I don't need help from someone as low as yourself. Though I suppose you do have some merit for blood."

"Well in case you were wondering, I'm Nepeta."

He opened and closed his mouth as if trying to figure out what to say before managing to blurt out, "Equius... uh. That's my name."

She snickered, "God you're really nervous, huh? Is it the adrenaline from being lost in the middle of the woods?"

His face twisted in indignation, "Of course not! I simply... have not met a young lady of your... low caste who expressed such... confidence."

Nepeta raised her eyebrows, "Caste has nothing to do with it."

"What do you mean? Caste has everything to do with everything."

She rolled her eyes a bit, "Whatever you say Mr. Grumpy-butt."

"My butt is not grumpy. Now if you please," He took a deep breath, as if his patience were beginning to wear thin, "Would you kindly show me the way out of this forest?"

Nepeta nodded and ran up to him, grabbing his hand, "Sure thing, come on! This way."

She pulled him along as he stumbled through the underbrush, "Slow down!" He held gently to her hand, worried he'd break it, though he found her unflinching even as he held normally to her hand.

"Alright, so this is gonna take about half an hour if we run and an hour or two if we walk."

"I suggest we walk, after all uh-" He wasn't sure why he preferred that this journey take so long, "It'd be nice to observe the scenery."

She chuckled a little and nodded as she slowed down, still holding his hand, his grip just a bit too firm to pull it away. Besides. It was nice and cool and it wasn't like she minded. She could just flick out her claws and skewer his hand if she really wanted him to let go.

They headed along through the greenery quietly at first, just in awkward silence before Nepeta attempted, quite successfully, to make small talk, “So, Equius. What do you do for fun besides get yourself lost in forests?”

He huffed a little bit at the comment, “Well if you must know, I’m quite the collector of art and a bit of a mechanic myself.”

“Oh man! You like art things? I love painting shit!”

“Language. It’s unbefitting of someone as confident as yourself.”

She raised her eyebrows a bit and then sighed as she rolled her eyes, “Whatever you say. But yeah, do you do art?”

“What? I- no of course not. I simply appreciate the aesthetic.”

She pouted a little bit, “You’ve never even _tried_ painting something?”

“Preposterous.”

She continued to pester him for information about himself, asking what his favorite color was, how hold he was, how he shattered his glasses, silly little trivial things and soon enough the two of them emerged onto a road and she smiled up at him, "It was nice to meet you, Equius. Feel free to try to find me if you get lost in there again!"

She grinned at him as he nodded and reached a hand out to shake hers, "That was indeed... more enjoyable than I expected. You are quite a nice young lady. Take care of yourself in there."

She snickered and nodded, "I will. Um... If you want, you could talk to me over that trollian thing. I'm arsenicCatnip on the chat client."

"Oh uh... I don't know of that particular application... I'll look it up maybe."

She grinned and nodded, "Alright, sounds good... Have a nice rest of your night!"

And she waved as she scurried back into the forest, her bushy hair tangled up with leaves and twigs.

He watched after her and waved back at her in a bit of a daze before turning and leaving, heart a bit lighter than when he'd arrived.


	3. Scourge of the Planet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry this is so short. Death and blood in this chapter. Tread lightly.

"Hey, Vriska! Get your ass over here, we got a runner!"

She raised her eyebrows and hurried over with a grin, "Blood color?"

"Looks like Olive."

"Piece a' cake."

Their victim, or rather their target of justice didn't make it far at all, feet flying over the ground as he sped over the darkened hills, breath catching in his throat, glancing over his shoulder every so often, eyes wide. Anyone who was anyone knew exactly who the Scourge Sisters were. It wasn't like he'd done anything that bad, right? He didn't deserve their "justice" did he? He'd just taken out someone who wasn't as high on the spectrum as he. So he sprinted. And sprinted. Ears ringing with fear as he practically flew over the ground, attempting to escape the scourge tracking him.

Terezi cackled as she sprinted after him, drawing her blade with a grin, "By court of justice, you have been declared _guilty!_ Resist and we will be forced to use extreme measures!"

He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe. He was going to die.

"Vriska! Come on! Time is dead kids!"

Vriska snickered a little as she took a route around the side of the clearing, easily gaining the  high ground as she pulled her dice out and tossed them up in the air, "Come on, come on." Once they'd all hit the ground a bright blue light glowed and she glanced over her shoulder with a grin as a battle ax appeared in her hand and she jumped down off the ledge right in front of the kid, "End of the line."

She hauled back and swung, lodging the ax quite solidly in his skull and he buckled under the weight, falling limp, head still stuck in the ax before Vriska put the damned thing away and she glanced up at Terezi giving her a brief thumbs up, smirking lightly, "Here, gimme a hand with this! This guy's not the lightest thing I've ever carried."

Terezi rolled her eyes and resheathed her blade as she picked up the now dead oliveblood, holding under one of his shoulders as Vriska held under the other, "Alright. Come on, before he starts to smell."

Terezi snickered a little at Vriska and dragged the dead guy along until they could make it to Vriska's chosen vessel, humming a little bit as she loaded him up onto the transport, "Later, Pyrope. Same time tomorrow!"

Vriska left Terezi standing on her own, a sort of sick satisfied feeling settling in her gut as she started to put away all of her flarping equipment. This was nice, though she did have to admit, she wasn't always fond of their methods. It used to be that they'd sit the person down and talk to them first, go through an actual trial-like system and decide whether the perpetrator was guilty or not, but now... now it was just kill the perpetrators regardless. Though she had to admit... it was kind of fun. But didn't that just take the whole concept of justice out of the equation?

She sighed as she waited for the next transport to arrive, running a hand through her short hair with a sigh, shaking it out a little as she leaned back against the signal pole, tipping her head to the side tiredly as she waited. The next transport wouldn't arrive for another ten minutes or so. She was... rather exhausted. It was always fun chasing down "criminals" and dolling out vigilante justice. She loved it. But the exhaustion and doubt afterwards... that was the difficult part to deal with.

_His steps were never quick enough. Never fast enough. He could never run and yet here he was, sprinting for his life. He knew he couldn't best those two. They were the best this side of the planet._

Was it even justice really if it didn’t go through a proper court? If the judges, Jury, and Executioner were all one person. Two people even? Was that really justice?

_He was going to die, he was going to die. He'd heard of them before. They never failed to subdue a target. There was no point in fighting, no point in running. He was dead either way. It was only a matter of how long._

Maybe they should stop killing people like this. It wasn't really helping better the populous... God she's thinking this through too much. Vriska needs to feed her lusus anyways. It's not like she can just stop feeding her dead kids.

_And he can see her out of the corner of his eye. They say she's the more ruthless one. Apparently she's hard as metal. Traps you and plays with you until she's bored. Oh god she's standing right in front of him._

Maybe their brutality is too much. Maybe they should stop this.

_His life his flashing before his eyes. Fuck what's his moirail going to do? What's his lusus going to do? He's going to die. His eyes widened as the ax came down and-_

Terezi glanced up as the transport pulled up next to her and she climbed on, heading to the back where she sank down on the seat and curled up to sleep. It was going to be at least an hour ride back to her stop.


	4. The First and Last Visit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man, I've been getting so much support on this fic and I just want to let you guys know that I really appreciate it. I hope you all continue to enjoy my work! I haven't gotten this much attention on a piece since forever so thank you all very much!
> 
> Warning: This chapter contains descriptions of invasive medical procedures and body mutilation.

CG: LOOK, I'D LOVE TO HAVE YOU OVER, BUT I DON'T THINK THAT'S A GOOD IDEA FOR FUCKTONS OF REASONS, OKAY? I'D LOVE TO SEE YOUR HIDEOUS FUCKING FACE IN PERSON, BUT I'M SERIOUSLY SURE THAT IT'S NOT A GOOD IDEA FOR YOU TO COME OVER.

TA: oh come on

TA: plea2e?

TA: iim not gonna get another chance here KK

TA: iim LEAVIING iin two day2

TA: forever

TA: iim goiing to leave to get all fuckiing hooked up to 2ome dumba22 2hiip for the re2t of my liife

TA: ju2t let me come over ju2t thi2 once

CG: I DON'T KNOW, SOLLUX. I'M NOT SURE ABOUT THIS. I DON'T GENERALLY HAVE *ANYONE* OVER TO MY HIVE. I JUST- LOOK, IT'S NOT BECAUSE I DON'T WANT YOU TO COME OVER EXACTLY, IT'S A SAFETY THING.

TA: kk ii am fuckiing beggiing you here

TA: ii promii2e nothiing bad wiill happen, okay?

CG: KNOW WHAT? FINE. DRAG YOUR ASS OVER TO MY FUCKING HIVE. WHO GIVES A SHIT? CLEARLY NOT ME. YOU CAN JUST WALTZ YOUR ASS RIGHT INTO MY PERSONAL SPACE THAT HAS KNOWN NO LIFE EXCEPT MINE AND FUCKING CRABDAD'S. DO YOU HAVE MY ADDRESS?

TA: yeah ii may have ju2t found iit iin ca2e ii wa2 ever iin trouble or 2omethiing

CG: OH MY GOD. WHY DO I EVER EXPECT ANYTHING DIFFERENT FROM YOU? OKAY SO I'LL SEE YOU IN A WHILE.

TA: 2ound2 good

TA: later lo2er

\--twinArmageddons [TA] ceased trolling carcinoGeneticist [CG] at 13:24--

Karkat sighed and glanced around his hive briefly, examining the block. Okay it looked decent enough to have a guest. He stood up and closed his husktop as he wandered around the block, fiddling nervously with his hands, slowly growing more and more panicked. Sollux was coming over. He was having Sollux over. Fuck what if he slips up and blushes or cuts himself on something or something dumb like that? Fuck, were his eyes starting to fill in yet? He hoped not. He paced around his hive before hearing someone knock on the door and he took a deep breath before heading up to open it, glancing up at Sollux in the doorway.

"Holy shit, you're even shorter than I thought you were." Sollux snickered a little as he walked in, slipping his shoes off as he glanced around the hive, "Also a neat freak apparently."

Karkat rolled his eyes and closed and locked the door behind Sollux, "I'm not short. I'm vertically challenged. And no I'm not a neat freak. I'm just not a fucking slob is all. So yeah whatever, just make yourself at home or whatever the fuck."

Sollux glanced around and shoved his hands in his pockets, "Sure you are, KK. Sure you are." He headed back into the recreational block and glanced around, "I like your hive. It's way bigger than my little hivestem compartment."

Karkat shrugged a little as he followed Sollux inside, "Whatever. It's nice."

"You're a lot quieter in person than online."

Karkat shrugged again, "Yeah well, I don't usually have actual people to talk to in person so it's a little really fucking weird, it's taking some getting used to, but rest assured that I'll be back to my long-winded dirty-windholed self in a few minutes."

Sollux snickered, "Okay that was much better." He paused for a while, just sighing and glancing around the hive quietly for a minute, "So today's one of my last days on-planet."

Karkat nodded and sat down on the couch, crossing his legs as he leaned back on the couch, "Yeah... How's that going for you? Heading off to pilot some dumbass ship?"

Sollux sighed and flopped down on his stomach on the couch, "Less pilot and more just be a fucking battery for the thing. I've been looking into the procedures for hooking me up to the damned thing. Permanent muscular damage, permanent nerve damage. Wanna hear how they hook you up?"

Karkat raised his eyebrows a little bit, "I'm almost scared to ask, but if it makes you feel better or whatever the hell, go for it. I'll pretend to be listening."

Sollux snickered again and nodded a little, "Thanks for caring, KK. I really appreciate your pretending to be listening."

He sighed and rested his face in Karkat's lap for a minute, "So what they do is they puncture the skin in key nerve locations and brace the skin and muscle open with little metal sockets so that they can get the biowires hooked into the nerves where they'll basically fuse semi-permanently with the nerve there so they can sap the psionic power from the nerves with the highest connection rate to my thinkpan. The only way the wires come out is if they die or if the electrical connection is severed so the energy coming out of the sockets fry the biowires. So because of the metal bracings and sockets even if I were ever freed or managed to escape I'd never be able to walk properly again and the psionic power would never really return in full since it'd still be depleted through the sockets."

Karkat's eyes slowly widened in horror as Sollux described the process and he frowned, reaching a hand down to stroke lightly through his hair, "Wow. That's... really really horrible..."

Sollux nodded a little, "I'm sort of coming to terms with the whole thing and debating whether I think I'd be able to fend off a bunch of drones long enough to get away, but I'm guessing my chances of actually escaping this procedure are dangling right around zero."

Karkat nodded a little and sighed, "Believe it or not I've got a relatively similar situation here. I mean sure I'm not gonna be perforated like a fucking sponge or anything, but I'm gonna have to try to get off planet in a really discrete way or my ass is getting culled the minute I step in sight of any drones."

Sollux raised an eyebrow at him and sat up in vague interest, "Oh? What's your fun defect that's getting you in trouble?"

Karkat glanced away and pulled his knees up to his chest, "Well... I don't know. You wouldn't tell anyone, right? I mean I'm basically dead anyways."

"Yeah, sure I won't tell anyone. I'm not gonna really be able to tell anyone soon enough anyways. Nothing like becoming a literal object, huh?"

Karkat sighed and leaned his head back on the couch, "Yeah... I may or may not have a... uh... blood defect."

"What do you mean by a "Blood defect"? You mean something's wrong with it? Is it a medical thing or...?"

Karkat flinched a little bit and ran a hand through his hair with a sigh and sat up a little, "It's... kind of the wrong color."

"Wrong color?"

Karkat grumbled and rolled over on the couch to shove his face between the cushions, "I don’t wanna talk about it."

"No no man, I mean... I'm just honestly curious as to what you mean here. Like... is it not matching up with your genes or something?"

Karkat groaned and pulled a blanket off the back of the couch over his face, "It's not- I'm... Okay so this is going to sound crazy and dumb and awful, but I'm not even on the spectrum."

There was a pause as Sollux blinked at him before opening his mouth, "Oh... I see."

Karkat peeked up from under the blanket at him, "Are you... freaked out?"

Sollux shrugged, "Not really. Oh my god what color is it? Is it like. Fucking silver or something? Wait. Wait is it _actually_ gray? That'd be pretty impressive."

Karkat relaxed a little bit, letting out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding, "No. It's just red is all and it's like. really fucking bright red."

Sollux looked up at him and nodded, "You could have a way worse color."

Karkat shrugged, "Yeah but it'll still get me culled."

Sollux sat up and sighed, "Yeah... looks like this is probably gonna be the last time we really talk a lot. I'm spending tomorrow making sure my lusus gets out of my hivestem okay."

Karkat nodded a little, "Yeah..."

They sat in silence for a moment before Sollux glanced up at him again, "Hey, you wanna do something dumb? Like just... do stupid things like explode grub-sausages in the microwave? Or throw pillows at each other or something like that?"

Karkat stared at him incredulously for a moment, "Oh hell yes."

Sollux grinned a big toothy smile and sat up and grabbed at Karkat's sweater, pulling him to his feet, "Come on, let's do dumb shit."

Karkat snickered a little and followed him off to go and "do dumb shit."

* * *

 He sighed and watched as Sollux left through the front door, a sense of finality settling over him as he watched Sollux's Technicolor form flying off into the distance and he closed the door with a sigh, turning around and running a hand through his hair, heading back to his desk tiredly. That'd been fun... but he had a few papers to fill out for his off-planet vessel of choice. No ship allowed hemoanonymous boarding except some of the illegal ones and he didn't want to use one of those considering the off-planet horror stories he'd heard about some of those.

So he's going to find the most corrupt vessel he can, and hope they'll take a bribe.

And he's going to hope for the best.


	5. Goodbye to a Kind Soul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Death. Like. Very graphic death. Also grief. And stuff related to death.  
> Ugh this chapter didn't really turn out the way I wanted it to, so I'm sorry if it sucks. I'd be happy to take constructive criticism though because yeah Idk, I feel like this chapter isn't very good. Sorry folks.

Aradia's feet hung over the side of the table as she played with Tavros's little tuft of hair, purring quietly as they sat in the comfortable silence of Tavros’s hive, her feet resting on either side of his four-wheel device’s armrests. She sighed and closed her eyes as she rested her chin on his head. They only had so much longer together before she had to leave. She gently kissed the side of his shaved head and smiled a little bit as she rested her hands on his shoulders, “I’m gonna miss you, Tav.”

He nodded a little bit but stayed quiet and she frowned a little bit as she leaned forwards, gently cupping his chin to make him look up at her, “Hey, what’s wrong?”

He rubbed at one of his eyes with the heel of his hand and hiccupped quietly as she climbed off the table and knelt before him, reaching up to smooth her thumbs over his cheeks as he took a few deep breaths and gripped his hands in his hair, “I’m gonna get culled. You’re gonna be gone and I’m gonna get culled all alone and I- I don’t wanna die alone.”

“Tavros. You are not going to be culled. Do you understand me? The drones will come around, and you’ll demonstrate that you are in fact a capable member of society and they’ll give you your off-planet pass. You understand?”

He nodded and put his hands over his face, taking slow deep breaths, trying to calm down, but all he could see was a culling fork. He felt Aradia’s palms on the backs of his hands as she stood up and leaned over next to him, wrapping her arms around him and gently rocking him despite the awkward positioning, “It’s gonna be okay. You’re going to be just fine.”

Tavros nodded a little bit as he hugged around Aradia’s shoulders and tucked his head into her hair, “I’m scared… What if they cull me?”

Aradia held him and ran her fingers over his skin ever so carefully and kissed his cheek lightly, “They’re not going to cull you.”

He nodded again as she held him, humming a soft tune against his head with a purr, smiling softly, "I'll try to call you when I get onto my ship, okay? I'll get ahold of you and maybe we can end up on the same ship eventually."

He smiled, "Yeah, it's not forever... Let me know as soon as you get there."

She nodded, "I will, I love you, alright?"

"Do you... want to watch a movie or something?"

Aradia smiled at him and kissed his cheek, "Of course. I'd be happy to."

* * *

 

Tavros's hands shook and kneaded the arms of his four-wheeled device, licking his lips nervously, casting glances up at the clock every so often, spinning circles around his recreational block with a tired frown, he had another fifteen minutes before the drones were scheduled to arrive and inspect his hive and himself. He briefly debated trying to leave the four-wheeled device in his respite block and trying out those crutches, but the last time he’d tried that he’d found himself face-planted on the floor and having to crawl his way back up to his four-wheeled device with much difficulty.

It wasn't long at all before there was a semi-mechanical sounding knock on the door and Tavros gulped, wheeling himself over to the door and opening it, trying to still his shaking hands as he wheeled himself outside and closed the door behind him, staring up at the looming figure of the culling drone standing over him.

He wasn't entirely certain what he was supposed to do to demonstrate that he was an active functional member of society.  He cleared his throat and stared up at the unmoving unfeeling face of the drone, "I- I uh... Can I show you inside?"

No response.

It was customary to let drones examine the home, or so he'd heard at least. He backed up a little to open the door, heart pounding in his ears as he let the drone in, hands shaking just a bit as he wheeled himself into the hive, letting the drone examine his hive and he held his breath, absolutely terrified, eyes blown wide open as he watched the drone stand in the middle of his itty bitty recreation block. Oh shit, he should be making eye contact instead of staring at the drone’s feet right now. But god he was so scared. The drone was enormous and spikey and there was a culling fork right there.

And then the drone was staring down at him with those empty eyes and his bloodpusher feels like it's going to jump out of his chest and explode on the floor. For a moment nothing happened except for fearful silence, hands clenching on the arms of his four-wheel device like his life depended on it.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion.

The culling fork rose and his eyes widened further, looking like he was staring up at the drone with giant globes. He wheeled backwards just a little bit before there was a sharp pain in his chest and his mouth fell open, eyes wide as he glanced down at himself, brown slowly seeping through his clothes and dripping down to pool in his lap as the fork pulled out of his chest and left three gaping holes in each prong's wake.

The drone turned and left him there, shaking in his four-wheel device and staring down at the floor. Soon enough shock set in enough that the pain lessened and he started hyperventilating, breath coming in heavy gurgling gasps as he glanced towards the telecommunication-device. Aradia. Fuck, what if she didn't find out what happened to him? His vision started to black out around the edges as he lost more and more blood, coughing up blood and glancing down at himself. God just looking at the slick brown coating his shirt made him feel sick. He tried to push himself out of the four-wheel device, panting heavily and falling forwards onto the floor, trying to drag himself over to the telecommunication-device, only to find himself too weak and to shaky to do so, laying on the floor and trying to keep his breathing even, face pressed against the hard cold stone as he felt everything sort of... slowing down. His eyes wouldn't stay open and his breathing slowed before he stilled entirely, labored breathing coming to a halt. 

* * *

 

It wasn't until nearly a perigee later that Aradia found herself staring at a letter from the On-planet population data center. She sat with her back against the door to her personal chambers she shared with another rustblood and tears welled up in her eyes as she read over the sentence again.

_"Tavros Nitram was culled on the fourth bilunar perigee of the second light season's equinox."_

It just wouldn't process. There had to be a mistake. Maybe there was another Tavros Nitram. She sat there until there was a knocking on the door and she couldn't even open her mouth to tell her hiveblockmate not to come in, still just staring at it as the words slowly sunk in.

Her shoulders shook and hot rusted tears dripped down her cheeks as she folded up the letter with hands that didn't seem to want to function properly, hugging her knees and hardly reacting when her hiveblockmate opened the door into her back and blinked down at her before leaving her be.

She stood up and wiped her eyes as she headed for her coon, placing the little sheet of paper on the floor next to it as she stripped down and curled up, knees tucked under her chin as she sank into the slime and tried to let it wash away the grief.

And all that could be heard aside from soft ragged breathing was “It’s not forever…”


	6. The Honor of a Cat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Nepeta's battalion faces their final challenge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm terribly sorry about the delay, this chapter was very hard for me to sit down and write because I wasn't entirely sure how I wanted it to go. Thank you all so much, please enjoy the chapter.

Three sweeps since she'd enlisted into the off-planet military. It wasn't as if she didn't know the risks, but it wasn't until now that she really realized just how dangerous this work could be. Living and fighting on the front lines definitely put one's mortality into perspective. She crouched low to the ground as she slowly crept along the path, holding a hand up to give her squadron the signal to wait as she slowly worked her way up the path, military grade gun clutched in her fists. It felt so clunky in her hands, especially compared to the claws she’d once used.

Her tongue darted out over her lips as she waved her team forwards, eyes narrowed at the area before her. She then indicated for her squadron to wait there again, slowly making her way forwards towards a covered area of the path, her breathing heavy in her chest as she walked up along the path through to the next area.

According to the most recent report on the area, the inhabitants of this particular moon were not the most friendly and had managed to thieve away some of their weapons which is why they sent Nepeta. She was efficient, consistent, and got the job done. It's taken her a couple sweeps to earn her reputation, but when she did, it was beyond noticeable. She and her squadron would start getting more difficult tasks, better benefits, all that fun shit. She got enough shore leave to go visit her moirail on his ship sometimes.

Now she had her group hold. There was bound to be an ambush in the area so she climbed up into the jungle-like areas on either side of the path, narrowing her eyes and creeping forwards ever so slowly, she knew they'd be there. She paused mid-step at the sound of something or someone moving not terribly far from her and she crouched down again, narrowing her eyes and checking her gun briefly to ensure that she wouldn't have some crazy fluke accident in which she left the safety on or some such bullshit. She swallowed and tread forwards carefully, trying to keep her labored breathing slow and steady as she made her way through the foliage.

Twenty seconds and she realized just how much of a fucking idiot she was. They weren't on this side of the path, a gunshot and one of her battalion went down. She turned just in time to see her tealblood fall, clutching at his gut. Fuck. They needed to get some cover. She waved her squadron into this side of the path where they crouched down, peering into the foliage on the other side. The humidity of the foreign planet had them at a disadvantage, breathing heavier, making them shake, unable to get enough air into their bodies. She signaled for open fire.

She'd been lucky to have only lost one of her squadron. She signaled for them to wait, narrowing her eyes at the trees across the way. This was always the rough part, being able to tell whether there were more still there. She waited before waving them forwards, through the foliage, along the side of the path, bloodpusher pounding in her chest as they made it down through the jungle.

It was a slow tedious process, but they got the job done. There would be the sound of a gunshot, they'd have a target, they would fire, then they would eliminate it.

And soon it appeared that they'd done their job, they'd taken out the hostile targets, they found themselves at what looked to be the main camp, mostly deserted except for a few here and there whom they easily downed before starting to go around reclaiming the stolen weaponry. As soon as they'd gotten everything loaded up she had the blueblood girl push the rolling containers while she and the rest of the squadron fanned out ahead.

The slow trek back to their landing base was slow and long, but thankfully uneventful. They turned the corner to the ship's landing pad and Nepeta's throat went dry.

She signaled them to hold.

A group of the green-skinned inhabitants of the planet, nearly twice their own height and a protective sort of outer layer of plastics over their bodies (She'd looked into the reports on the indigenous people of this moon, they apparently grew plastic plates in their skin, like scales of some sort and survived off of some strange diet she couldn’t remember all the components of) stood around the base of their ship, carrying more of the stolen military weapons.

And then Nepeta looked up. Hanging from the hull of the ship was their pilot, riddled with holes, her mustard blood dripping all over the ground beneath her. She was hung up on the ship with hooks and ropes wrapped around her throat, pierced through her chest and arms, dangling like some sort of limp doll from the hull of the ship, red and blue eyes staring blankly at the ground. Mouth hanging agape, dripping yellow onto the dirt.

Nepeta swallowed the bile rising in the back of her throat and she glanced back at her squadron. For now, they were stranded. She whispered back to her crew, "Who here can construct a distress beacon?" The little Maroonblood in the back raised his hand and Nepeta nodded, glancing back at the grotesque scene before her. The inhabitants appeared to be waiting for them, "Build one with what you have. Now. Everyone else, make sure Hessir does not die. Do not approach the landing pad. We are outnumbered at about five to one. If they come to us, do not fire unless you have a silencer, understood?"

Her battalion nodded and Hessir got to work, digging through the weaponry they'd just recovered, pulling out various parts of weapons and equipment and going about the slow process of building a handmade distress beacon.

They would switch off watch, two people at a time while the rest of them would try to sleep. For the first few hours the inhabitants appeared to think they were simply taking their time. It wasn't until after that the trouble started.

The first set wandered over to check maybe four hours after they'd started trying to get a signal beacon set up. The tough part was the fact that they didn't have a battery, and certainly not one strong enough to reach a shuttle passing by. So Hessir sat, slowly starting to assemble a battery. It would help if they had a psionic to power the beacon, but alas their pilot was dead and if their pilot weren't dead they wouldn't need the charge in the first place.

At first it was just three, creeping down the path before the two trolls on watch fired and dragged their bodies off the path. Nepeta ushered her squadron off into the cover on either side. As soon as they realized that their scouts went missing there would likely be more coming. Hopefully they could pick them off one by one like this. But these were not primitive creatures, they understood warfare and understood it fairly well it seemed.

The next batch was larger, but thanks to their placement off the path, her battalion managed to down each of the hostiles efficiently. It seemed like they might be able to get out of this safely.

That is until the entire hoard came, realizing that their scouts had been killed.

Nepeta ushered Hessir into the crate containing the weapons and had him stay there. If they could get a passing shuttle to come rescue them then they could survive. If not, they were doomed. She had her squadron spread out in the foliage to either side of the path, if they could flank the hoard they might be able to take out the majority of their forces, then they might just stand a chance.

Her bloodpusher beat fast and hard in her chest and she took a moment to clutch the little diamond-shaped locket around her neck, flipping it open just briefly to get a look at the awkward toothy smile of her moirail before smiling a little bit and taking a deep breath. She closed the locket sighed watching as a large group of the hostiles approached the path where her squadron was set up. She checked her gun to make sure that it was loaded properly. She watched down the barrel of her gun, taking a deep breath and waiting until they’d made it just slightly past their ambush before opening fire on them.

For a while it appeared that they might actually make it through this, they couldn’t entirely tell where they were being shot at from, but slowly it seemed like they figured out where they were, she heard a cry of pain from across the path and she started moving down the side of the path, trying to find a different vantage point and firing into the crowd of the plastic-skinned hostiles.

There were almost 30 of them and only six of themselves. She panted as she ducked behind the trunk of a tree and started to reload her gun. She heard another pained cry from across the path. How many of them were left? She clutched to her gun, panting and sweating before peeking out around the back of the tree and taking aim before starting to fire again and moving along in a crouch through the underbrush.

She grunted in pain as she felt a bullet in her shoulder and she gritted her sharp teeth together. She made her way along the floor of the forest, trying to find another point to shoot from and firing again, panting as she picked off a few more of the enemy before she felt another bullet in her stomach and she clutched her gut, breathing heavily and swallowing as she looked down at herself, her hands now covered in her own olive green and her eyes widened. She picked up her gun and managed a few more shots before yelping at the feeling of another shot in her chest and she panted, reaching up to grab her locket as she rested back against the tree she sat by, closing her eyes and trying to keep herself from hyperventilating. She clicked her locket open and ran her blood-covered thumb over the image of Equius's smiling face before closing her eyes again and trying to force herself to stop shaking and relax.

Her battalion never made it out.


	7. A Real Job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vriska and Terezi have a falling out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for the wait, It was really not supposed to be this long a wait, I got stuck on the fight scene and instead wrote a little bit of the stuff that comes later in the fic. I hope you're not too upset with the wait and stuff!
> 
> Content warnings for: Eye gore, dismemberment, and excessive blood

Vriska laughed as she leaned against the transport signal pole, running a hand through her wild hair, "Did you see the look on her face!? That was priceless!" She let her head tip back as she laughed, glancing over at Terezi who just frowned at the pavement and nodded.

"Hey, what's wrong with you? You're acting all fucking weird."

Terezi glanced up at her and shook her head as she returned her attention to the ground, frowning as she scuffed her shoes in the dirt, "Nothing I just... I got a job.” She paused a moment and let out a sigh, “I know we're not headed off planet for another few perigees but I thought I'd make sure I have a place on a ship somewhere ahead of time... I'm supposed to head in for training pretty soon."

Vriska furrowed her eyebrows, "What? When did this happen and why didn't I know about it?"

Terezi gave a shrug of her shoulders, "Well, I didn't know for sure yet. I just found out this evening. I'm leaving in a Perigee."

"What!?” Vriska gripped at Terezi’s shoulder, eyes suddenly wild and enraged, “But what about us? Weren't we going to go try to work on the same ship?"

"Look, Vriska–” She reached up and pulled Vriska’s hand from her shoulder and took a step away, raising her hands in defense– “I'm sorry, I just- It was a good offer, I didn't think I was gonna get it, but it's a _good_ job. I'm gonna be a legislacerator. A _real_ legislacerator, not your skewed view of justice."

" _My_ skewed view!?” Vriska let out an incredulous laugh and began pacing back and forth, “You've never said anything about it before! What? Is it because you're suddenly some responsible adult now? You think you're better than me now?” She turned on Terezi, shoving a finger at her with a sneer on her face, “You've done everything I've done!"

"Yeah? I'm not the one who suggested skipping the trial period altogether!"

Vriska laughed and threw her arms into the air, returning to her agitated pacing, "But you sure didn't seem to have a problem with it at the time."

"You're just upset that I'm not going to be around anymore. It's time for you to grow the fuck up. We've been playing games with people's lives like wrigglers for sweeps. You knew we weren't going to be together forever."

Vriska blinked pausing again as if caught off guard and then narrowing her eyes at her apparent former partner, "I was actually under the impression that we were. We were going to start our own ship... Vigilante justice, remember?"

Terezi narrowed her eyes at her, "You really thought that was going to happen? The imperial fleet would have shot us down within a perigee."

"It would have been more fun than getting some boring job," She spat back, "You're just turning all boring. You're losing the fun."

"That's all anything's ever about with you, isn't it? How much fun it is. Newsflash, you're almost an adult. You need to get a job and pull your act together instead of acting like a wriggler. I'm ready to start making a life for myself, what about you? It's not going to be handed to you on a platter. If that's how you think it is, then it'll probably be your head on the platter instead."

Vriska bared her teeth at her, "Well maybe I would have prepared _more_ if I knew you were going to stab me in the back like this! What happened to us! We were going to do things together and now you're blowing me off like you never met me!"

"That is not what is happening here. I'm just getting a job. I'm making sure I don't get culled the minute I head off-planet! I'm making a life for myself! What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to salvage a fucking friendship we've had going since we were like two! You're apparently dead set on destroying it though, so I guess you just don't give a shit do you?" She pulled out her dice, glaring pointedly at Terezi as she fingered them in agitation.

"You're not salvaging a friendship, you're trying to force me to do what you want, strong-frond me into your stupid wrigglerish fantasy world where we don't get culled for going rogue," She pulled out her swords and clenched her jaw, eyes scanning over Vriska's figure, looking for some sort of opening in the case that she should need to defend herself.

Vriska fingered her dice, seven held in her right hand and her left turning one over and over between her fingers, “You're just a filthy no-good back-stabbing asshole, aren't you? I pity whatever friends you might have made if you ever got off-planet.”

“If I got off-planet? Are you threatening me, Serket?”

Vriska scoffed with a roll of all eight of her eyes, “As if I'd let you go off and ruin other people’s lives. As if I'd really just let you walk away like this? You really think I'd let you go that easy?”

"Of course not, you always did have to be so fucking difficult, didn’t you?" Terezi shifted her feet nervously, taking a defensive stance and narrowing her eyes at Vriska and glancing at her feet to check whether she’d taken a fighting stance as well or not, the breeze across the dark hot wasteland of the Alternian brush rustling through her hair, making her eyes water as the wind whipped past her. Terezi wasn’t really one to run, but staring down the fury of Vriska Serket and knowing that she isn’t one to spare her victims had Terezi’s acid sac churning.

For a moment– just a fraction of a second there was no movement, no sound except the rapid thrumming of her pumpbiscuit hammering away in her thorax as she stared with uncertainty at her former partner. Then in the blink of an eye, Vriska had tossed her dice up into the air.

After knowing Vriska for sweeps, it was easy for Terezi to realize that this would be the only chance she’d get where Vriska would be one hundred percent vulnerable to attack. Unarmed. Her attention split. Terezi let out a slow breath and brought one of her swords up sharply, just under Vriska’s outstretched left arm which had thrown the last of her dice up into the air. The blade caught just below her shoulder and lifted until striking something solid and lodging itself in the bone of her arm. The howl echoed across the sparse hills as the last of Vriska’s dice tumbled to a halt.

3, 1, 7, 8, 8, 6, 2, 4.

In Vriska’s hands materialized a pair of short gleaming daggers. With her left arm rendered essentially useless, she dropped one of the blades and growled, lashing out towards Terezi’s face with her good arm. Pulling her sword from the bone it’d become lodged in, Terezi ducked, turning around Vriska’s left side, attacking her weaker and less protected side in anger, dancing around her, forcing her to turn and turn around, trying to keep up with her own feet.

Terezi danced circles around her, taking shots at her left arm, attempting to take advantage of the opening it provided her. With one dagger, Vriska managed to avoid the majority of Terezi’s blows, but managed to land none of her own, forced to spin to keep her from taking the rest of her arm.

In the process of turning further, Vriska’s face suddenly seemed to darken. Her feet stopped their turning motion, letting Terezi take the opening to swing down over her shoulder with one of her swords as the other aimed to stab right through her stomach. Vriska’s dagger landed with a “Clang!” against Terezi’s sword and it slid past her, leaving Terezi’s thorax completely open. It was with a scream of pain, muffled by gritted fangs that Vriska Clenched her arm down around Terzi’s sword. The blade slid up and through the bone in her arm, but it kept her opponent within reach and open to attack. She moved with her right hand to stab Terezi in the stomach who made to shuffle backwards, only to stumble and fall at the way her sword had been caught in Vriska’s arm. Terezi’s pusher caught up in her windchute as her fronds fell out from under her and she tumbled to the ground. The word dislodged from Vriska’s arm which now dangled freely from a flap of raw bloodied skin and muscle on her shoulder.

Terezi scrambled backwards as Vriska dropped to her knees atop her thorax, brandishing her lone dagger, too close for swords to easily reach her. Terezi dropped on and reached for the second dagger her opponent had dropped in the dirt, yanking it up with a sharp metallic sound from the ground and thrusting it up into Vriska’s face.

The scream was unholy, sent shivers up Terezi’s spine at the sound as Vriska threw her head back.

Her pusher had never beat so fast in her life as she stared up at Vriska, bleeding profusely from both her eye and arm, cerulean blue staining the ground and leaking into her clothes. In her distraction Terezi’s grip on her remaining sword loosened before Vriska’s weight shifted up, her knees now resting on Terezi’s shoulders.

She kicked out with her legs, shaking her head and shoulders in an attempt to throw Vriska off as her single good hand picked up a sizeable mound of dirt and threw it into Terezi’s face.

Her pulmonary sacs burned at the dust in them and her optical bulbs watered. She clenched them shut and shook her head furiously as Vriska’s hand climbed her face, claws pressing not-quite hard enough to make her bleed up into her eyes before they dug into the sockets.

Terezi arched up, kicking and fighting as she sang her pain to the moons, rocking her upper body back and forth to force Vriska off.

It wasn’t her struggles that provided her relief, but the way Vriska swayed with blood loss that toppled her over.

Terezi shot up from the ground, breathing heavily and hiccupping her pain as she felt around the ground, shaking with sobs, in search of her swords. Blindly she wrapped her hand around one of the blades. Her breath hitched in her throat at the sharp pain and then more slowly traced along the flat side of the sword until she found the handle and then felt around again for the other one, feeling for its handle as well and then sitting up shaking and fumbling to fit them together into a cane which she now genuinely required.

Breath quivering, hands shaking uncontrollably as she climbed to her feet, Terezi leaned against her cane just slightly, blood dripping down her cheeks as she swept it back and forth, loosing dirt and knocking Vriska’s dice around and then accidentally prodding at Vriska’s unconscious body as she tried to figure out what direction to go.

For a moment she was completely and Entirely lost, the only things in her world were the wind, Vriska’s shallow breathing, and her cane. Even if she couldn’t see it, the sky and the vast unknown seemed to crush down on her as she dropped to her knees. How would she return to her hive? How would she survive legislacerator training? How would she make it through drone season? She felt along the ground again with one hand for Vriska, finding her leg and feeling her way up along her body to her thorax.

“Vriska,” She breathed, voice shaking, “Vriska we have to get out of here.”

She reached down and tore away a part of her jacket, trying with blind fumbling to tie the fabric over the hole where Vriska’s arm dangled detached from the shoulder. Part of her– just a very small, though insistent part– urged her to leave Vriska behind. The rational part of her reminded her that Vriska was her only way out of here. Uncertain of which direction to head in order to return home.

Terezi braced an arm under Vriska’s good shoulder and hoisted her up, earning her a groan from Vriska.

Terezi let out a sigh of relief at the sound of the transport coming up the road.

“Come on, Serket. Let’s go home.”

Vriska only groaned again and drooped as Terezi carried her up onto the seats and sighed as she sat down beside her as well.

When she spoke, it came out as little more than a quiet mumble.

“Good Job, Serket. You kept me from getting the damn job.”

 


	8. Boarding Pass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karkat is given an offer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so I'm not dead! And I'm definitely not pretending I'm gonna be updating this in any sort of timely manner because I'm overhauling a lot of what I already had plotted out and am reworking some parts of the story and just haven't had the time to keep up with my fanfics lately, but I still wanna finish this fic so don't lose hope!

He’s going to die. He’s going to die. He’s going to die. It’s a steady pulsing truth that seems to thrum with each pump of his frantic bloodpusher. That seadweller up front is going to take one look at him and then take that gun and shoot him in his fucking head and let him bleed his ugly mutant red all over the fucking ground. He’s going to die. He’s going to die.

It was with clammy palms, wet with nervousness, that Karkat clutched his just slightly incomplete boarding papers and all the money he had to his chest. The distance between himself and the captain of the ship slowly growing lesser and lesser and it showed in the way his hands quivered and shook with every inch closer he came to that front desk. He tried to remind himself that he was lucky enough already to have survived drone season by abandoning his hive early and hiding out in the alleys of the closest city during the day. That had been two weeks ago. Now he was hungry, weak, and desperate for refuge aboard one of the departing transports off-planet.

The sound of his pusher hammering in his audial sponges only seemed to grow louder as the number of people between himself and the captain of the ship decreased. Five trolls, four trolls, three, two, one and his pumpbiscuit felt like it might just give out. The closer he came to the captain the more of his features came into focus. Over one side of his face the seadweller sported thick mountain range scars. His face remained fixed in a low glare, lips pulled back just slightly over his angler fish teeth.

When the troll in front of him smiled and took her boarding papers back, Karkat Vantas felt about ready to puke all over the desk where the captain stood surveying the line while an oliveblood filed away papers and a tealblood boarded the ship, shouldering their bag and disappearing into the airlock.

Karkat took a deep breath and approached the front desk.

“May I see your papers?” The oliveblood said as she sat back up from filing away papers, adjusting her wide-brimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose.

His breath caught in his throat and he nodded, handing his papers over to the oliveblood as well as a stack of caegars thicker than his wrist. The oliveblood glanced up towards the captain, pursing her lips as she picked up Karkat’s papers.

The captain’s eyebrows shot up at the bribe and leaned over the oliveblood’s shoulder, taking the papers from her and glancing through them to figure out what information required compensation. Karkat’s hands stood clenched at his sides, eyes darting towards the people behind him in line, concerned that even if the captain took the bribe, the trolls observing the exchange might still snitch.

When the Captain looked up at Karkat again, the mutant stood stiff as a board under the captain’s stern gaze.

“How much is here, kid?”

His response came quickly, rehearsed and robotic, “1,200 Caegars, sir. Give or take.”

The captain turned to his assistant, “Count them for me.” And then he looked up at Karkat again, seeming to scan him over, look him up and down before giving a curt nod behind him, “Walk with me.”

For a moment Karkat was simply surprised that he hadn’t been culled on the spot, and then that moment passed and he blinked before nodding a quick, “Yessir” and following the ship’s captain off behind the desk and towards the alleyway created by the enormous vessel and the one next to it. The ships towered overhead, blocking out the majority of the moonlight filtering through the thick musty air, stinking of psionic ozone and kicked up dust from the landing of the ships.

The captain stopped and sighed as he glanced through Karkat’s papers again in the dim cold light, “No blood color listed, no known doctorturer visits, minimal identification information. Kid, it’s gonna take more than a thousand caegars to get on board a high-skill training vessel at all, let alone as a threshie recruit.”

Karkat took a deep breath and nodded his understanding, “Yessir, I understand that.” He paused a moment choosing his next words very carefully, “I gave you all that I really have, but there is a lot that I’m willing to do to be allowed aboard this ship at all, even as maintenance or a quadrant for hire. I cannot provide you the missing information on my boarding documents though.”

The silence between them lasted only a few seconds, but to Karkat it seemed to last forever. He’d made relative peace with the fact that he would likely die young, accepted it as a likely possibility in his life, even more likely than it was for other trolls, but that absolutely didn’t mean that he ceased to fight his imminent death. He kept eye contact with the troll he already considered his commanding officer, even if he might never be granted residence on the ship. He watched the way the captain viewed him, sizing him up, weighing his losses.

“I think we may be able to work something out, kid.”

 “Thank you for the opportunity, sir,” Karkat sighed, breathless from the tension knotted up in his gut, all too ready to accept whatever position the captain might grant him.

The captain held up one hand to silence Karkat before he could say more, even as Karkat seemed to deflate in release, the worry and fear flowing out of his shoulders as he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“I’d like to first discuss the terms of our agreement before allowing you to board my ship.”

Karkat nodded quickly, relieved even to be given a chance, to even be allowed to live, “Of course, sir.”

The captain glanced briefly through Karkat’s papers once more, “I’m going to make you two offers. If you refuse both I’m afraid there’s enough evidence here of mutation that I’ll have to report you to the authorities.”

From the start Karkat knew he held little to no bargaining power. The only reason an officer might want him aboard their ship was to take advantage of his position.  “Understood, sir.”

“Good. Option number one. You come aboard my ship and work maintenance and quadrant service for the rest of your natural lifespan, earning reasonable pay. Basic necessities such as food and residence will be provided as well, however you will not be permitted to pursue training as a threshecutioner.”

“And the second option?”

“You work for five sweeps as a maintenance and quadrant service for no pay. Basic necessities will still be provided, however what you would have earned goes directly to me and the funds to run the ship. Once those five sweeps are completed, you may choose to begin your threshie training if you still wish to.”

“Sir?”

“Yes?”

Karkat shifted nervously on his feet, “May I board the ship and give you my answer by the end of the night? I’d like a chance to think about it, and I’d imagine you have more important things to do than watch me debate my options.”

The captain narrowed his eyes at Karkat, “You are to remain right here while you consider. You have an hour at most. I’ll send someone over to keep an eye on you. You may approach me at the desk when you’ve made up your mind.”

“Yessir, thank you very much.”

The captain looked Karkat up and down once more before turning and making his way back towards the desk shouting to the oliveblood manning the front desk, “Kirash! Get me a guard, anyone who ain’t busy right now!”

The oliveblood glanced up for a moment in alarm before giving a quick nod and a “Yes, sir!” If the captain wasn’t actively in the process of culling somebody then there was likely little issue, and she hurried off into the ship. The captain returned his attention to Karkat until the oliveblood came back with another troll in tow.

This other troll stood maybe a head taller than Karkat, imposing despite her lithe frame. Perhaps it was the way her horns curved forwards as if made to skewer. Or it could just be the short sword she carried at her waist, “Captain.”

“Irisan, keep an eye on this kid. If he tries to run, cull him. He has an hour to reach a decision. Bring him to me when he makes up his mind.”

“Yessir.”

With that the captain and the oliveblood deskworker returned to the line of trolls waiting to be granted passage on the ship or be culled.

Karkat glanced up at the guard and sighed starting to pace back and forth in the alley between the enormous ships, raking his fingernails through his hair. It shouldn’t be as difficult a decision as it is. Only one option let him pursue threshie training, but on the other hand the stability that having consistent access to food and board as well as a paycheck would bring was something he never thought he could have.

Twenty sweeps down the line he could be still working low-level jobs on a ship, watching high-ranking recruits train for prestigious positions, always having somewhere to go home to, a safety net. His life could become domestic in a way he’d never even considered before. All those sweeps he stared up at the posters of the Empress imploring him to join the military, looking up to the protagonists in movies who saved the night and won the affections of their love interest, and he’d never even begun to think of what it might be like to come home after another night of the same job to the same hiveblock, having routine and the comforts of a steady job.

His eyes darted up to look at the guard assigned to watch him for a moment and she narrowed her eyes at him, curling her hand around the hilt of her sword.

“If you had the option-“ Karkat started and cut himself off, pausing a moment in thought. He couldn’t ask someone who didn’t know anything about him what they would do in his situation. Although the objectivity might be an aid. He sighed and raked his nails through his hair, falling back into his pacing, “If you had to pick between a life of total stability, and a life that could end really fucking badly, but you’d have the opportunity to make a life-long fucking dream come true, what would you pick?”

The guard raised her eyebrows at him, a sort of bemused smile pulling at her sharp face, “You’re asking _me_ what to do with your life?”

“Can you just give me an answer here? I have an hour to determine whether I want the rock or the hard place here and if you could just lay down on both of them and tell me which one you think is more comfortable I would appreciate that _immensely_.” He rubbed both his palms over his face.

“Kid, calm down. I ain’t about to give you advice on anything If I don’t know the whole situation.”

Karkat’s shoulders slumped and he nodded, taking a deep breath and pressing his fingers into his temples, “Can I just… talk at you for a bit here? If I keep just thinking this shit internally it’s gonna pop out my optic bulbs and there’ll be a mess all over the fucking floor.”

She shrugged and leaned against one of the legs of the ships, crossing her arms over her chest and tilting her head at him, “Go ahead, I’ll pretend I’m listening.”

He snorted and let a smile tug at his lips, “The pretense is appreciated, ma’am. I just-“ He took a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair, “If I take the stable option that rules out threshie training for good and I don’t want to limit my options so much, but god knowing where I’d be getting my next meal, having a safety network, steady employment, I _never_ thought I’d get those things, but they’re just being- being fucking _offered_ to me at the low low price of my fucking wrigglerhood dream. But if I don’t take that I have no guarantee of safety or stability, I could take the other option and five sweeps down the line I end up fucking dead I-“

“Mind if I interject?”

Karkat blinked and stopped pacing to look at the guard, “I thought you weren’t listening.”

She rolled her eyes, “You think I got somethin’ better to do? Point is, it sounds like you think that one option means no death an’ the other means certain death. I don’t know about you, but in my experience, things can go wrong no matter what you do. Pick what’s gonna make you _happy_ , Capishe?”

The two of them watched each other a few moments before Karkat nodded, hesitant and slow at first and then quickly and with conviction. The problem was that he didn’t know what would make him happy. The Captain’s offer of a five sweep service term gave him time to decide what he wanted afterwards. Opened up options. He couldn’t commit to one life right now. He’d look back on his wrigglerish self and think “If only.”

“That was… strangely helpful for how fucking obvious it should have been.”

She shrugged with a crooked grin, “Not my fault you’re a numbskull.”

“Oh fuck off.”

“Hey, you’re gonna be spending some time on my ship, don’t talk back to me,” She retorted, standing up straight again and popping her back in a few places, “Now go talk to the damn captain I was off-duty.”

Karkat allowed himself to snicker under his breath and nodded, “Absolutely, ma’am.”

He took a deep breath and approached the front desk again, the guard following along behind him as he came to a halt just beside the desk and he cleared his throat to catch the Captain’s attention, “Sir, I have an answer for you when you have a moment.”

The Captain nodded without so much as looking in Karkat’s direction as he finished up welcoming a particularly short blueblood aboard. He then turned to the mutant, picking up the stack of Karkat’s papers from the table where they’d been placed aside, “Well?”

“I’d like to work for the first five sweeps. No pay. Whatever work needs done, sir.”

The seadweller’s lips turned up into something just shy of a smirk, “That’s ‘Captain’ to you. Now about these papers. We’re gonna have to fill something in on them now, aren’t we?”

Karkat nodded. Not only was he being allowed on board a ship, but he was being given the official paperwork that would let him continue on unhindered even after completing his term of service, “Yes, Captain. That seems a wise idea.”

“Let’s start with blood color, shall we?” The seadweller picked up a pen from the table and clicked it open, “What color you wanna be, Vantas?”

“Burgundy.”

“You sure? You could aim higher than that. Might get you places later down the line.”

Being someone on the spectrum at all had always been little more than a fantasy, being someone higher than the bottom rung on the spectrum was a joke, he’d considered it only when picturing himself the hero of some sort of love story, never something that he could potentially be. Burgundy would be easier to pass off with the warmer hue of his skin, and he was terrified that his eyes which remained gray even now might suddenly fill in and doom him.

If he could pick anything though, “Make me green. Low green though. Olive or… or something a little higher than lime.”

“I think the technical term you’re lookin’ for is yellow-green.”

“Yessir, that one.”

The captain scribbled down “Yellow-green” where “Blood Color:” had been left blank and then licked his thumb and started to file through the paperwork.

“Alright, the rest a’ this is gonna take a while to get through. For now you go ahead and board the ship, you’ve got the pass. The drones’ll bring in whatever belongings you checked with the ascension crew into the ship once we let them know this is the vessel you’re on. I’ll send for you sometime in the mid-morning to finish up this paperwork. I’ll keep a hold of it while you’re workin’ for me an’ when your five sweeps are over I’ll give it back.”

Karkat let a wide grin spread over his face and he nodded his head vigorously, “Of course, captain. Thank you so much. I really appreciate this.”

“Just get your ass on the fuckin’ ship, cullbait.”

“Yessir!”

Karkat hurried up the ramp into the ship grinning as he followed the line of boarding recruits to the remaining check in. Block assignments, brief overviews of ship layout, information on the facilities. He could feel himself almost floating as he followed the stream of trolls through the halls and eventually to a door that opened at his command and let him into a block smaller than his old ablution chamber, but it was his, he wasn’t dead, and he might just see threshie training one night after all.


End file.
